Wednesday 13 May 2009 06.24 EDT
First published on Wednesday 13 May 2009 06.24 EDT

John Fry, chief executive of the regional newspaper publisher Johnston Press, said today that advertising revenue had begun to stabilise after a year of steep decline – but signs of recovery were not likely until 2010.

Fry added that Johnston Press was "still bumping along the bottom", but after a year of tumbling advertising revenues as the credit crunch tipped the UK economy into recession, "we have got to the part where it starts to get easier".

"It would be dangerous for me to start talking about economic recovery, but we are not seeing it [ad revenue] drop like last year," he said. "We are not in the green shoots area yet, we are still bumping along the bottom."

Revenue from recruitment advertising remained "soft", Fry added, with no one area showing any signs of growth.

"I don't think it [growth] will happen this year, I expect it will happen next year," he said.

Publishing an interim management statement today, Johnston Press said it had cancelled the sale of its Irish titles, risking a breach of its banking covenants, because potential buyers could not raise a suitable offer.

Fry said that offers had been a long way off what was expected and that Johnston Press would now move forward with changes to its Irish businesses, with a focus on building audience and reducing costs.

Johnston Press cut around 1,300 jobs last year and, while Fry added that there would be no mass redundancies as a result of its failure to sell the Irish titles, he indicated a further reduction in overall group headcount was likely as part of an ongoing cost-cutting programme.

Failure to sell the Irish titles, Fry said, would not have a great effect on the company's UK titles, where it publishes papers including the Scotsman and the Yorkshire Post, as there was "no link" between the operation of the businesses.

The Irish sale was intended to help the publisher reduce its debt burden, which now stands at £448m. Fry said this debt would now be managed through renegotiation of its current banking arrangements.

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Looked at together, today's statements from Johnston Press and Trinity Mirror make depressing reading. Both report huge advertising revenue losses. Despite platitudes about things stabilising and the decline easing, neither can perceive any light at the end of the tunnel